Pasta Salad

My mom invited me over for a cookout yesterday and of course, I know I have to bring my own food. I don't expect others to accommodate me and of course, I love to share when I can (especially cookies!). I fixed black bean burgers, salad, and chocolate chip cookies, but I still felt something was missing. I wanted pasta salad. I'd never made it before, but how hard can it be, right? I flipped through my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, just to make sure I wouldn't overlook something silly. Their recipe called for a few things I didn't like (like olives), but also gave me ideas (I've never had zucchini in pasta salad and wouldn't have thought to put it in). My frozen peas were freezer burnt, so I went to my garden and picked a double handful of sugar snap peas and steamed them. Just from what I had lying around the house (and my garden) I made an excellent pasta salad!

Ingredients:

Pasta (any kind, I used multi-colored radiatori and regular macaroni)
Peas (frozen or steamed)
Zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
Red bell pepper, diced
Onion, finely diced
Italian salad dressing (I used Annie's Tuscany Italian)

Boil the pasta and then drain it and run cold water over it. Toss it in a bowl with the other ingredients. Cover and chill about 2 hours before serving.

Use as much or as little of each ingredient or add different ones. If it sounds good, it probably will be. If you make a potful, you'll probably want to use all, or almost all, of an 8 oz bottle of dressing. I didn't make that much and I used less than half the bottle.

The cookout was great and a lot of fun!